It is the rivers that define the features of Dalton, and it is the rivers that define the fishing experience on Dalton.
500 fingerlings of the prized Loch Leven brown trout were released into the waters of three Drakensberg rivers by British officers during the 1880’s. One of the original waters stocked was the Bushman’s river, where the fish found a perfect natural habitat and have flourished ever since. Now, over 100 years later the
descendants of these
wild browns |
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may be stalked in the lazy green pools of the Bushman’s river which runs through the main valley of Dalton, in the swifter, narrower waters of the Heatherspruit, or along the placid shoreline of Lake Murray. Lake Murray was developed to provide an optimum habitat for this very sporting species, for rainbow trout and for the fierce indigenous yellow fish, a heck of a fighter.
The rivers have always been the focus of life and leisurely activity here. At a ford on the Heatherspruit, if you know where to look, you will |
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see the grooves where young men of the amaHlubi came to sharpen their Assegais, the traditional short-handled spear invented by King Shaka of the amaZulu.
Fishing Dalton’s 15 kilometre stretch of the Bushman’s, with its 37 tranquil deep pools and interspersed rapids, is regarded by local fly fishing enthusiasts as “an honour”. Parts of this river have never been fished and the experience is literally a journey of discovery. |
